Danny Sanderson

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Sanderson was born In Kfar Blum in Israel, grew in Haifa and Savion and at the age of 10 moved with his family to the United States where he lived until he was 18. Sanderson was drawn early in life to music, and played in several rock bands, mainly influenced by mid-60s American pop and rock.

At the age of 18 he was conscripted to the Israeli Defence Army and played guitar with the Nakhal military singing band. Sanderson was mainly noted at the time as a phenomenal guitar player, but soon also gained reputation as a composer and arranger.

In 1972, after a short and unsuccessful bout in London Sanderson returned to Israel and founded, along with friends Alon Oleartchik, Ephraim Shamir, Giddi Gov, Meir Feningstein and later on Yoni Rechter and Yizkhak Klepter, a new band called Kaveret (כוורת, beehive). The original idea for the band, formulated by Oleartchik and Sanderson, was to create a pop-rock operatic show, centred around the fictional figure "Fugi" which Feningstein and Sanderson created. The operatic show did not work, but when separated into individual songs became an instant hit in Israel, catapulting Kaveret into the position of the most successful pop-rock band in Israel then and since.

Sanderson was the dominant force in Kaveret. He wrote the music, alone or with other Kaveret members, to all the songs in Kaveret's first two albums (except one, which was a cover of an old Israeli song). Only with the third and last album of the band were 6 songs written by other members, four of whom later became important song writers themselves. In 1976, most of the other band members were anxious to embark on their own individual careers and after a short performance tour in the United States Kaveret disbanded.

Sanderson took a break from music to write a nonsense book (Nekhira Pumbit, נחירה פומבית, A Public Snore), musically produced a successful stand-up/music show for Yehonatan Geffen and met Neomi, whom he married in April 1978.

Sanderson went on to create another band called Gazoz (גזוז, a type of aerated drink), which was also a success (2 Albums) and then another band called Doda (דודה, Aunt), which was more rockish in orientation and although producing some hits ultimately failed.

Sanderson soon rebounded with his first solo album and solo show, and went on to create two other albums and solo shows in 1984 and 1987, which were even more successful. His next album, Kofetz Leshni'ya (קופץ לשנייה, Just popped for a second) from 1991 was a more mature and musically sophisticated achievement, but was less successful than his earlier solo albums. This illustrated a problem constant in Sanderson's career: The Israeli audience, enamoured with Sanderson's blend of humour, jokes and lighthearted music, was willing to accept Sanderson's brilliant music only when masqueraded as 'simple pop', but was much less enthusiastic about more earnest musical attempts by Sanderson.

Sanderson later created two more albums in the 1990s, an album of his songs, sang by others (2001) and a melancholy album (2006) called Congo Blue (קונגו בלו), which coincided with the death of his wife, Neomi. Sanderson also released several compilation albums and participated in two albums commemorating reunion shows of Kaveret.